Confused about the use of cloud drives

hummer7 · 12 Nov 2014

I am very confused about the use of cloud drives. Tons of commercial cloud drive service are now available. I am currently trying dropbox, iCloud (Apple), google drive, etc. I am not storing much files in these drives. What I understand is that if I want to buy 1 tb space in DropBox, my hard drive should have an equal amount of empty space (i.e., 1 tb). If that is the case, in order to use another 1 tb from google drive and also from SkyDrive, my hard drive should have further 2 tb empty space in my hard drive. That means I cannot have many cloud-based drives in my computer. Am I missing something? What I like those cloud drives is that I can see and read files in cloud-based drive from my other computers, iPhone, and iPAD. Because of the requirement of empty space in my computer, I am not enthusiastic about using cloud storage service. Please enlighten me.

strollin · 12 Nov 2014

Generally, the cloud based storage allows you to pick and choose what files are synced to your local drive. For instance, you could have 6 folders on DropBox but have only 3 of them synced to your local drive. It's referred to as "Selective Sync". https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/175

gregrocker · 12 Nov 2014

I would want to have a hard copy of all files on my PC.

Look over these steps to simultaneously Sync, Backup and Store your Files to the Cloud with OneDrive.

hummer7 · 13 Nov 2014

Strollin, I am also confused about the term "sync".

>only 3 of them synced to your local drive (dropbox).

Does that mean the files (or files in three subfolders) in dropbox folder syncing with the same files (in the same three folders) in the hard drive? If a file is revised or updated in the hard drive, does the same files in dropbox also undergo syncing? Excuse my ignorance.

strollin · 13 Nov 2014

Yes. They sync in both directions. You can also choose what other computers are synced. For instance, let's say you have a desktop, laptop and a tablet. You have a folder in DropBox called documents. Depending on how you set things up, you could make a change to a document in your documents folder on your laptop and that change would be synced to DropBox, then to both the tablet and desktop.

hummer7 · 14 Nov 2014

Thanks strollin. Meanwhile, I was testing with dropbox. What you are saying is absolutely correct. I installed desktop Dropbox. When it is installed, it also created "c:\Users\hummmer7\Dropbox\" folders. The contents in this folder is exactly identical to those in dropbox.com (my account). When I deleted any file in c:\Users\hummmer7\Dropbox\ , the same was removed from dropbox.com too. Vice versa. Both are well synced as you described.

Here is what I am confused. Hypothetically, if I store 1tb-equivalent photos in Dropbox.com, the same will be automatically copied onto c:\Users\hummmer7\Dropbox\ (i.e., synced). This raises two questions: a) How to stop copying (or sysncing) in my computer? Because I do not want duplicated files in both Dropbox and my hard drive, and b) The amount of storage space to use dropox is depending on the available empty space in c-drive. Please enlighten me. Thanks.

strollin · 14 Nov 2014

I have told you about "selective sync" which can be used to control what gets synced. Have you looked at the DropBox preferences and looked for "selective sync"? Right-click on the DropBox icon in the system tray then click on the "gear" icon then "Preferences".

hummer7 · 17 Nov 2014

Hi, I tried Selective Sync this weekend. That solved my question.
Thanks for your advise.